CHINA: China could face worse forest fires and be more severely affected by wood-destroying pests this year because of global warming, according to a senior forestry official.
The government would buy dedicated firefighting helicopters for the first time to deal with the increased threat, said state forestry administration spokesman Cao Qingyao, adding that some officials still did not take the problem seriously enough.
"International weather experts predict that because of the double effect of global warming and El Nino, 2007 will be the warmest year ever and the forest fire prevention situation will be extremely serious," Mr Cao said yesterday.
El Nino, which occurs about every two to seven years, is caused by the warming of Pacific waters off South America and can disrupt normal weather patterns around the world, leading to drought in some areas and heavy rain in others.
With average temperatures rising and rainfall dropping, the problem of protecting China's 1¾ million sq km (676,000 sq miles) of forests - an area the size of Libya - is a massive one.
"The weather is getting hotter, the area of forested land is expanding and people are travelling around China more and more, so it's getting that much harder to prevent forest fires," Mr Cao said.